Ellis Island - a piece of land at the mouth of the Hudson River, a singular point in American history: millions of eyes watched with hope from here on torch Statue of Liberty. More than six decades in a row was the largest island in the United States point of reception of immigrants.

Once there lay oyster shoal on which the pirates were executed. During the war for independence island merchant Samuel Ellis bought and opened a tavern here. So there was the name of the island. In 1808, New York bought Ellis Island and resold it to the federal government - it has built a barracks and then the battery, which has not had to defend the city. Over eighty years there was a military fortification of Fort Gibson.

Later in the New World poured waves of immigration. From 1836 to 1914 the United States went to look for a new life more than 30 million Europeans. They did not stop either penniless or conditions of the voyage across the Atlantic: in the sea died out of every seven. At first, the survivors set foot on land in Manhattan, but in 1892 the government opened immigration center at Ellis Island. First he went through thirteen Irish Annie Moore: Head of the Centre Colonel John Weber gave her a golden ten dollars.

The first building of the center has been preserved, it burned down in 1897. The new built of red brick designed by architects Edward Lippingtona Tilton and William Boring. There were huge rooms with bunk beds, a dining room in a thousand places, laundry, hospital. Increased and the island itself, SVEZA here soil excavated during the construction of the New York subway. April 17, 1907 set a record for the center: to this day have passed through 11747 people, and each of them spent here only three to five hours.

Arrivals climbed the stairs to the reception area, doctors watched them from above ("shestisekundny medical check-up"). On the clothes put chalk symbols: lame, out of breath (this could mean heart trouble or TB). Offered test: from pieces of wood to lay down their ship. Not folded - dementia. In the years of mass immigration so we sift to 20 percent of the profits. He refused to single women, but takes a bride. In 1907, on the ship "Baltic" arrived more than a thousand brides - advance deducted from ready to marry American men. Many were married right on the island.

The center worked until 1954, after he went more than twelve million immigrants. Now here is the Immigration Museum - the only tourist site of the island. Ellis extremely popular among Americans: through these gates have been the ancestors of the current hundred million citizens. For Americans, it is sacred land.

The core of the museum's collection - vintage photos with stories of whole families. Visitors learn stored here hundreds of ship logs: suddenly there exists the name of his great-grandfather. "The island of hope and tears" - so called Ellis Island. Hope - because the millions of pilgrims stepped dvenadtsat here on earth of a new homeland. Tears - because 3,500 immigrants have died in the local hospital. 1400 of them - children who have not found a country of promise.

Now the museum is closed for major repairs after the hurricane "Sandy" did not spare a small island in 2012.